Did you know that the most popular artisanal bakeries, boutique dairies and guesthouses offering homemade food in the rural areas were created and are managed predominantly by women?

Women are the main driver of diversification, i.e. transforming the raw farm production into a complete, modern brand. In the period March-April 2026 the EU’s CAP network conducted a survey of Managing Authorities as part of the activities of the Thematic Group on Farm in 19 of the member states. The survey showed that women and youth are the drivers of diversification across the member states and the main source of innovations, new business ideas and entrepreneurship.

In some European states women have historically always been the initiator of the diversification of farming activities although their contribution is not officially recognized. They are the ones who develop agritourism, direct sales, processing and community services. 

The survey confirmed that the current CAP toolkit contains many suitable interventions benefiting diversification of the farms. Those are investment support, short chains, processing of the production and adding value on the farm, knowledge transfer and advisory services, organic farming etc.

However, European farmers are not short of ideas regarding the making of this support more effective such as:

• adapting the production investment support to the diversification projects; 
• lowering the schemes threshold in order to secure access for smaller farms and micro initiatives;
• providing targeted funding for marketing capabilities like branding, sales, tourist services, business skills and digital marketing;
• Increasing the support for newly emerging sectors and services in the rural areas;
• Introducing tools for strengthening the local partnerships and cooperatives for joint initiatives.